Thursday, 5 February, 2009

Nine times out of ten, the first impression someone gives you is exactly who they are. We choose not to see it because we need the money, or we want the situation to be different. But if someone rubs you the wrong way at the first meeting, chances are, it’s only going to get worse.

Monday, 1 September, 2008

Making decisions based on a “gut feeling” is something we become more proficient at with experience, and through previously utilising “deliberate decision-making” processes.

Otherwise, “going with your gut” should only be reserved for deciding minor, or inconsequential, matters.

Making a gut decision is a perfectly respectable way to, say, choose your lunch. There are other decisions, however, that feel like gut decisions – ones we make quickly and without much apparent conscious thought – that may involve more higher-order thinking, or experience, than we realize. Newell offers the example of a doctor he knows, who insists he can make patients’ diagnoses based on gut decisions. “But that doctor has 20 to 30 years of experience, and has in the past employed deliberate decision-making. So maybe over time, these decisions become automated,” says Newell. “Going with your ‘gut’ may be right when you’re an expert. For example, maybe choosing lunch every day is easy because we do it every day.

Doesn’t the statement “making a gut decision is a perfectly respectable way to, say, choose your lunch,” seem to be just a tad too self-resolving though?